Another major party week for Hong Kong?

Sometimes I really can’t believe the wave of talent coming through the city. This week is a case in point. In two days alone Hong Kong will host DJ Stretch Armstrong, Eli Escobar, Tittsworth, Pase Rock, Amanda Blank, guitar player John Mayer, DJ AM, Uffie, Busy P, Sebastian, Feadz, DJ Mehdi, Krazy Baldhead, and So Me.

While two of the events are private, invitation-only affairs (to commemorate flagship store openings by Diesel and Coach,) the Volar / Ed Banger event at HITEC is open to the public via ticket sales.

Walking through the MTR station in Central last week, the walls of the Lan Kwai Fong exit featured multiple posters for the event.

Advertising in this way is a rare move not normally associated with club music. But then again, this is no ordinary one-d.j. show!

The Volar / Ed Banger extravaganza features a whopping seven of the French indie record label’s acts. Paris-based Ed Banger is one of the most hip of all contemporary labels. In addition to the seven Ed Banger acts, the night also includes two local d.j.s, a v.j., live painting and four tattoo artists!

This deluge of talent reinforces my recent theory about Hong Kong no longer being a cultural backwater. The people responsible for bringing these musical acts to the city are all mentioned in that post. Once again, the CLOT crew, Federico Tan at Diesel and the Volar gang deserve praise for importing interesting international acts.

11 Comments

“Am a big fan of your site but recently took exception to claims of Hong Kong
being a cultural centre – found H.K nightlife massively undewhelming so far.
The comment was swiftly erased and wondered why – is all dissent silenced??”

Hi D.Kaye.

I’m happy you like the site, but you read the post the wrong way. If you re-read it, the point is not that Hong Kong is a cultural center, but that it has made big progress over what it used to be. Hong Kong has a long way to go before it can claim to be on par with New York or another cultural capital.

Part of that growth process is sparking a local interest in the arts. Perhaps this can be achieved by exposure to what’s happening in the rest of the creative world. This is why the recent increase in quality international performers is a big deal.

miss vixen: i didn’t see it that way, i felt bad for john mayer that the audience was so unreceptive. then again, i was surprised that he was chosen to perform at a launch party. i like his music but the style just seemed unexpected for this type of party, i would expect coach to have something more along the lines of a DJ AM all night. it was still great seeing him perform live though.

administrator: do you know where to find pictures of the coach event online?

I’ll be putting up a full post on the COACH event soon! I have to sort through the over 200 photos I took… that’s what takes me so long to update after big events… sifting through the photos, choosing the best ones!

I liked John Mayer’s performance. Do we actually need to hear yet another d.j.? It gets to be overkill sometimes. (Though I did find d.j. AM’s performance to be excellent. He was so fast to go from one genre of music to the other, scratching it up all the way! He also played songs that would be familiar to most of the audience.)

Catching John Mayer is another case of getting a chance to see someone who would never normally come through Hong Kong. Even though my background is more geared to listening to d.j.s spin, it’s that much more refreshing to hear live music. I wasn’t expecting an acoustic set at all. Hong Kong crowds might be less familiar with his music, but it’s equivalent to catching someone like James Blunt at a small private show. It was a real treat to the international guests who are familiar with his music.

Hi Deb, sorry let me clarify….I absolutely loved the idea of him performing there. Yes, I think it’s a great change from all the DJ performances, we need more of this. But I was bummed out cos he only played like 5 songs and…that he couldn’t really care less….hence the comments when I interviewed him. He said that they had to drag him over here for the event etc…. I was very dissapppointed and perhaps I wanted to express that in my comment above.